


Views on the Continuation of the Jewish Faith

by just_about_nothing



Category: Original Work
Genre: Jewish Identity, Judaism, Religious Conflict, Religious Content, speech
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 07:53:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13608915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_about_nothing/pseuds/just_about_nothing
Summary: The text within contains my views on the continuation of the Jewish faith in regards to the Reform movement alone, given in front of my congregation.





	Views on the Continuation of the Jewish Faith

**Author's Note:**

> This was a speech that I gave in front of my congregation for my confirmation at the age of 15. For those of you who think that that's just a Christian thing, the Reform Jewish movement started doing it in the early 20th century so that Jewish adults (in other words, people who have undergone a bar/bat mitzvah) had more of an informed choice about their religious faith. It should be noted that I am not an expert in Judaism and these are my views alone.

The problem is with Judaism, and religion in general, is that it's so much easier to trust in science solely and exclude religion. It's so much easier to say to yourself, in this day and age, 'This doesn't make a lot of sense and science is simpler. I'm going to discount religion because there's no proof, there's just a story. With science, there's proof!' Don't get me wrong, science is pretty great and we got into space with it but there's no reason why you can't trust science and believe in your religion- Judaism, in this case. I kind of sound like the Intelligent Design people, I know, but it takes a lot of will to believe in something that you can't see, can't hear, can't touch, whether that's a soul or a god or even a code of ethics. That, I believe, is why I'm still Jewish. Not because I believe there's a God- I don't- but because I believe that the laws in the Torah are right- morally and ethically. I believe, very deeply, that for each human a code of ethic exists and that religion plays a big part in most people's code of ethics.

For most of the laws in the Torah, the reason behind them is “I am Adonai, your God, who brought you out of Egypt.” Now, I think quite a lot of that is because it's a nice explanation for why humans, on the whole, are governed by laws based on our internal ethical code. If you take God out of the equation, just leave God out of the laws of Judaism, you're left with, on the whole, a bunch of pretty decent laws (and some not so decent laws that you can discard) and your only reason for following them is to become a better person and because the laws of Torah satisfy your internal ethical code. I, personally, find that beautiful. That a document, written thousands of years ago, can still satisfy us in a very fundamental way. Thus, I've remained here and continued to think about the laws and the reasons for those laws besides just reading them and saying to myself 'those are cool' before moving on with my life. 

However, as I've opened my mind up to talking to different sorts of people about their religion- which is generally some sort of branch of Christianity whose principles I can barely understand- I'm beginning to see that for many people, their faith is their driving force. Their faith is why they have the options that they do, why they have the speech patterns that they do, why they like the things they do, why they have the political views that they do. Like many of my classmates here, I don't have that faith that they do and I don't think that I ever will. That sort of faith is the sort of faith that is gained by not deeply questioning one's personal believes, something that is impossible, I think, in Judaism- or at least at Albert- and something for which I am very grateful never happened to me. Thus, I conclude with the fact that science and religion cannot neatly coexist if both the conclusions and processes that come out of science and the long standing beliefs out of religion are not questioned constantly. 


End file.
